Patrick Mahomes made one of the better throws of his career in São Paulo, Brazil, even if the result Friday turned it into a mere footnote.
He rolled to his right — actually, he sprinted to his right, because Khalil Mack burst past left guard Kinglsey Suamataia in a split-second — and unleashed a throw while being shoved to the ground. The football still traveled half the length of the field, with wide receiver Hollywood Brown waiting on the other end.
That play generated the loudest reaction of the night inside a 50,000-seat stadium, as though an international crowd had finally witnessed what they’d paid to see.
Finally for the crowd. But for the Chiefs, too. In the season opener, they connected on not one but two downfield shots, a sign that the deep passing game has returned.
Right? Well, about that. Mahomes did throw the ball deep at a higher frequency (10.3% of his attempts) in Week 1 than any full year since 2020, using PFF data. But that’s a bit misleading, because it didn’t replace the tendency to throw short or throw quick. Instead, it just extended the intermediate game a bit deeper into the secondary.
Mahomes actually threw more quick passes Friday in Week 1 than any single game all of last season or the year before. Really. He attempted 25 quick throws — passes released in under 2.5 seconds — which was the highest total of any quarterback in the NFL in Week 1 and his personal highest since Week 9 of the 2022 season.
His average pass came out of his hand in just 2.38 seconds, per Next Gen Stats, also the quickest in the league last week.
A concerted effort to let plays develop downfield? It was far closer to a double-down of the short-and-quick game.
There are three things that I ought to point out, in the interest of full context:
• It is a one-game sample size, with 94% of the season left on the schedule. This is our first peek at the passing game, not a full picture. Yet.
• Whatever blueprint the Chiefs had for the Chargers needed to be altered after only three plays, when top receiver Xavier Worthy left with an injury.
• The Chargers’ coverage scheme begged the Chiefs to throw it short.
All are true. But all are part of the point. When the Chiefs grew desperate in the opening week— as dictated by the score, circumstances and early-game struggles — they reverted back to the familiar.
The short game.
Was that the initial intention, or was it an adjustment based on how the game was unfolding?
“Some of both,” head coach Andy Reid replied when I asked him that on Wednesday. “I’ll tell you I thought we had an opportunity there (short) — and at the same time, we had a couple of (downfield) shots in there too.
“But the way it played out, there were some opportunities there (short), yeah.”
That’s been the case for a minute — or, rather, for a half-decade now. Teams want to force the Chiefs to throw short. It’s why they averaged the most plays per drive in the NFL a year ago. It’s partially why they were the second-worst downfield passing unit in the NFL in 2024.
The offseason emphasis was to restore the control of it. The coaches have asked Mahomes to look deep before throwing short, even if pre-snap alignments or pre-game film suggests the back end of the secondary will be occupied.
And he did fire the football deep on Friday on four occasions. He hit on a couple of them — the one that led this column and another to Tyquan Thornton just before halftime to set up the fire-drill field goal for three points.
It’s a start. But it’s also the extent of that first peek. If it didn’t have the feel of a revitalized passing game altogether — if it felt more familiar to where the Chiefs left off — well, that wasn’t just your imagination. Mahomes had the second lowest percentage of intermediate throws in the league last week, second only to Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who will visit Kansas City this weekend after somehow making zero intermediate throws in the opener. (The intermediate range is 10-19 yards past the line of scrimmage.)
In a nutshell: The Chiefs replaced their intermediate throws with a couple of extra downfield shots, but they haven’t migrated away from the heavy does of quick-hitters.
It’s not a complete restoration. And that’s completely relevant this week. The Eagles were the NFL’s best defense against quick passes last season on a per-play basis, per Next Gen Stats. And you’ll never guess what finished as one of their very best games in defending them.
Super Bowl LIX. It’s what kicked this entire plan in motion. Sure, the Chiefs’ summer self-scout would have suggested using more of the field this season. But that Super Bowl turned a luxury into a necessity.
This opponent will do the same. It’s early. It’s one week into the season. I can’t share that context enough. It’s a reminder that these things are hard to implement, even when the intentions are there. We’re not here to make season-long conclusions.
But we are here, still waiting, to see if significant change comes to fruition.
